We Made An Android App So You Can Read Art News

Books and print magazines about art have many flaws. They don’t fit in your pockets. Their commenting communities are weak. Even the most acclaimed books fail to provide breaking news. Often, we choose books over far superior internet publications (like this one) for the simple reason that books work on the subway.

Slightly more accurate view.

Today, the printed word dies: AFC has made an Android app. You’re probably asking right now, “Is it just any old app?” The answer is no. It’s an app that lets you read art news on the train, based on a hand-picked bundle of our 20 most favorite art publications/blogs:

Art21 Blog

ArtAsiaPacific

Art Fag City

ARTINFO

A Year of Positive Thinking

Cabinet Magazine

Culturebot

CultureGrrl

Edward Winkleman

Fillip

Frieze Magazine

GalleristNY

Greg Allen

The Guardian

Hyperallergic

Modern Art Notes

The New York Observer

Rhizome

Triple Canopy

How does it work? Almost exactly like the NY Times app. You open it up, it downloads full text versions of articles from 20 publications, and then you’re good to go. Publications without full text RSS feeds, most notably the LA Times, were left out to avoid wasting your time. Publications with paywalls, like the NY Times, were similarly cut. Where we could identify them, slideshows are left out, too.

In short, this is something we wanted for ourselves, so we made it for you guys too. Will it change the world? Nah. Will AFC get bought out by Google? Nah. But it’ll keep you from reading subway poetry.